Sunday, May 9, 2010

Parent Political Picks by the Big Education Ape

Patrick Kennedy Sacramento City Council 5

Ray Tretheway Sacramento City Council 1

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Mother’s Day for Peace. � Fred Klonsky's blog

The California Master Plan at 50: The Big Picture � The Quick and the Ed

The California Master Plan at 50: The Big Picture

by Chad Aldeman

On April 26, 1960 the California Legislature signed into law the California Master Plan for Higher Education. Read a brief history of the Plan, how it intersects with the SAT and affirmative action, how the transfer function is failing, and how better coordination is needed.

California is a state of extremes when it comes to educational attainment. It ranks near the top of the states in the percentage of adults with bachelor’s degree or higher, but it is also the state with the highest proportion of adults with less than an eighth-grade education.
In the middle part of the 1900s, up until about 1970, California’s growth was driven by migration from other states. Many of these immigrants were well-educated. In 1960, 66 percent of all college graduates living in the state of California had earned their degrees in other American states. By 2005, that percentage had fallen in halfand the net domestic migration of college graduates fell below zero for the first time in decades.
Meanwhile, foreign-born college graduates filled up nearly all of this slack. Contrary to popular belief, immigrants to California, both foreign and domestic, have actually helped make the state more educated. This has been improving over time. The percentage of recent international immigrants with college degrees increased from 18 percent in 1985-1990 to 33 percent by 2000-2005.
Still, projections on California’s workforce needs in 2020 predict that the state will need to increase college graduates by 15-20 percent, on top of in-migration and existing educational opportunities, in order to meet

"The Facebook Privacy War: What Is Personal Data?" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Two Minute Video Below "Data 101"
What Is Data? What Is Private?

On the heels of The Daily Riff''s recent posts, "Get Off Facebook: Middle School Principal Takes On Cyberbullying" and "Is The New Facebook A Deal With The Devil?", you would think we might have a problem with Facebook. Well, we do.

Technology has MUCH to offer our society. However, as with everything (especially thesedays!), you have to keep a watchful eye on those companies and or individuals that may take advantage of a situation.

Regarding technology and social network sites in particular, when you have privacy policies that are changed mid-stream and where the customer has to actively monitor (!) the site's privacy settings, this is the time to let these companies know "we, the customer, won't buy into" this "kind of misrepresentation". Especially when you have a behemoth like Facebook operating so cavalierly, it makes one think of Goldman Sachs with their arrogance and disregard for the customer. Recently adding to Facebook's woes related to customers' outcry against its privacy changes, the company just encountered yet another too-big, too-fast incident with a tech glitch that jeopardized their standing with customers even further: private

Schools Matter: The Imagine Schools "Death Spiral"

The Imagine Schools "Death Spiral"

by Kenneth Libby

Guess which charter school chain is behind this little scheme:

An F-rated St. Petersburg charter school stands on the verge of collapse, mired in debt and losing enrollment. And most of those debts — around $1 million in public tax dollars — are owed to the same private company that founded it.

No, this isn't Chris Whittle's newest invention, this is the corrupt fools at Imagine. It's not a surprise - heck, this is practically the blueprint for Imagine's business plan. The snippet above is from Tom Marshall's article on Imagine that appeared in today's St. Petersburg Times. Do check it out.

I can't even tell you how many reporters are either a) too lazy or b) too dense to fully understand the corrupt practices of Imagine despite being sent ample evidence of their ways. Instead, they simply buy the sales pitch

Schools Matter: Rhee Hires More Chiefs for Bloated Central Office

Rhee Hires More Chiefs for Bloated Central Office

by Jim Horn

Never mind that the District's CFO has found overspending at Rhee's Central Office as one of the reasons she has come up short on money to fund a new teacher contract. And never mind that Rhee's new covey of TFA alums will be hired even if they have never been school administrators--@ $120k to $150k. It's all a part of the new top heavy order for running corporate schools--a house full of scraping sycophants and a bare-knuckled megalomaniac at the top. From Bill Turque at WaPo:

By Bill Turque
Sunday, May 9, 2010; C01

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is more than doubling the number of senior managers who oversee the District's 123 public schools, a move intended to put more muscle behind her efforts to raise teacher quality and student achievement.
Openings for 13 "instructional superintendents," with annual salaries of $120,000 to $150,000, were posted on the D.C. schools Web site late last month. Instructional superintendents directly

Maria Shriver and The Women's Conference Celebrate the Power of Motherho...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom....

Dear Mom when I was young

I sat at your knee

You would tell me great stories

Ones that I could see

Stories of old

Stories of the Wild West

Stories of grandpa

I loved best

You told me stories

Peeling apples in your lap

You told me stories

Then lay down for a nap

You told me of peace

How to be a friend

And of love

Close to the end

You never doubted me

You told me the truth

You let me feel older

I (was) but a youth

You made me feel wanted

You did it all the time

Even when you scolded me

You did it in a rhyme

You play games with me

That I didn’t know were games

Telling me all people

Wanted and needed the same

You would brush your hair at night

And put on a little cap

Then ask for a kiss on your head

From this little chap

You did these things over and over again

Then one day you were no more

But my visits to you would not end

For even after all these years

I come to see you

My friend

Happy Mother’s Day Mom

Mother

The sweet smell of death floated

Across the funeral parlor room

As life went on outside the tomb

The smile on the face was faded and pale

As a choir of people cried and wailed

Tears of the child rolled down a cold powdered cheek

The wooden floor moaned and creaked

The confusion of the child longed to speak

What is death…when life is no more?

As patiently the choir filed out the door

Then reassembled in a place barren and cold

Upon the rocks there stories are told

Good-bye Mother

As they lowered her down

The child was lost

As the choir stood around

Back at home the child told to play

Don’t be lonely on this cold-cold day

The child grew

And remembered that time

His mother lived on

Inside his mind

And he remembered for such a long time

Mass. panel to hold forum on Latino education - Boston.com

Mass. panel to hold forum on Latino education

May 9, 2010

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LAWRENCE, Mass.—A governor's panel focusing on Latino education is scheduled to hold a series of hearings.

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The Latino-American Advisory Commission is slated Wednesday to hold its next public forum at Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence.

The hearings are aimed at educators, Latino families, and community groups who seek to improve Latino student performance in Massachusetts.

Another hearing is scheduled for May 20 in Holyoke.

After a series of statewide hearings, the panel plans to produce a report with a list

Obama: Education a responsibility of all Americans

by Darlene Superville, Associated Press Writer

President Barack Obama, addressing graduates at historically black Hampton University on Sunday, said that it is the responsibility of all Americans to offer every child the type of education that will make them competitive in an economy in which a high school diploma alone is no longer enough.

Obama delivers speech on education at Hampton University | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Obama delivers speech on education at Hampton University

Lesha Ruffin

Last updated 1 hr ago

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- President Barack Obama said all Americans have a responsibility to offer every child an education that will help them compete in an economy in which a high school diploma is no longer enough.

Obama delivered the message Sunday during commencement ceremonies at Hampton University, a historically black college at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia.

The president told the university's more than 1,000 graduates that they also have the added

Mothers Day 2010 Esther and Helen. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Esther and Helen. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Esther and Helen.

MAY 9, 2010

Fifty Years Ago Today: The FDA Okays The Pill � Student Activism

Fifty Years Ago Today: The FDA Okays The Pill

by Angus Johnston

On May 9, 1960, fifty years ago today, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would be granting approval to the birth control pill. As the sixties progressed, sex and gender relations in the United States were irrevocably transformed.
It would be an exaggeration to suggest that the Pill created that transformation on its own. As historian Elaine Tyler May notes, it was women’s activism that unlocked “the revolutionary potential of the Pill” — feminism and

EducationNews.org - Does RttT violate Federal Code section 3403?

5.9.10 - Race to the Top as written is not in compliance with U.S. Code. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) had no provisions that allowed Sec. Duncan to create a program in which state and school districts are bribed to comply with his direction.

Does RttT violate Federal Code section 3403?

Is Secretary Arne Duncan violating U.S. Code - Title 20 section 3403: Education (January 2004)?

Race to the Top as written is not in compliance with U.S. Code. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) had no provisions that allowed Sec. Duncan to create a program in which state and school districts are bribed to comply with his direction.

Read the legislation; the ARRA hardly gives Duncan the power and control he has seized through Race to the Top … The ARRA does not allow his RttT bastardization of the original education legislation as RttT violates Federal Code.

Federal Code 3403 includes: It is the intention of the Congress in the establishment of the Department to protect the rights of State and local governments and public and private educational institutions... The establishment of the Department of Education shall not increase the authority of the Federal Government over education…
No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or ......

A brief history of this situation follows and “Billionaires” play major roles:

1998: NewSchools Venture Fund was created in 1998 by social entrepreneur Kim Smith and venture capitalists John Doerr and Brook Byers, each of whom had witnessed the power of entrepreneurs to create change in other sectors, such as technology.

NewSchools’ first fund (1998-2002) was designed to build a new type of capital market that could support the development of innovative entrepreneurial ventures serving high-need students within public education. The fund was intended to test the hypothesis that entrepreneurs can act as agents for change, capable of influencing and possibly even transforming large public bureaucracies. In our first fund, NewSchools supported nine entrepreneurial nonprofit and for-profit ventures.

EducationNews.org

Strauss: Race to Top winner failed on standards

5.7.10 - One of the two states chosen by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a winner in the first round of

Full story

Valley High hosts health and fitness expo Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Valley High hosts health and fitness expo

By Diana Lambert
dlambert@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, May. 9, 2010 - 7:00 am

Valley High School will host a Health and Fitness Expo for the community from 9 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Wednesday.

The event will provide information on how to improve the health of participants and their families.

"The Health Expo has been a tremendous success over the past three years," said Principal Keven MacDonald. "Through this event, the Valley High School Health TECH Academy has made a name for itself as a community leader in health advocacy. As a result, the Health Expo has continued to bring more opportunities for our

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